Sunday 1st September 125km

Perth to Meenaar

My first tyre change. This is the left tyre on the trailer – I’m not sure if I can put this excessive wear down to the fact that this wheel ends up on the broken edge of the road far too often or that the trailer is slightly misaligned?

Contrasts: Total bike dedicated paths within the city. Two lane with solid concrete edge uphill with no bike friendly shoulder and heavy traffic to get out of the city. Wide bike friendly shoulders once ~20km out for as far as I have come. Cloudy day

Monday 2nd 155km

To Merredin tower

Bike friendly shoulder all day with a brisk cross wind but blue skies.

This water pipeline follows the road.

Tuesday 3rd 185km

To Telstra tower

Shoulder was barely adequate but had a great tailwind all afternoon. Cumulus shading was frustrating.

Felt quite dizzy when I stopped so added a sachet of electrolytes to my drink bottle, sat down and relaxed and all systems returned to normal.

First really windy and exposed camp. Wondering how the tent will cope… Fully pegged out it looks secure as I bed down.

The trailer panel acts as a great windbreak for cooking behind when on its side 🙂

Wednesday 4th 205km

Gravel pit near Higginsville

Wind died overnight but picked up during the day again making for a fast pace through the middle of the day. Mixed shoulders today but traffic volume has now decreased so makes for pleasant riding.

Got a doozy wind wash off a truck that broke one of my zip ties holding the bike panel on.

Thursday 5th 165km

To Fraser Range

Things got real today. Clear blue skies and light winds at daybreak quickly turned into towering cumulus and strong gusty winds. A wake-up call from a gust combined with a truck wake saw me take a bit of bark off and let off a fair bit of steam. I did what I should have done months ago and tied the edges of the bike panel down to the canopy mount to stop it billowing and accentuating the sail effect. An instant lessening of me becoming a yacht was noticable.

Stocked up on food and water at Norseman and began my acquaintance of the nullabor section with rain squalls seeing me hide in the trees a couple of times. The sky remained overcast, the gusty tailwind helped I suppose but there was no real shoulder to ride on.

Pushed through to 4:30pm to a nicish camp spot and managed to get tea cooked and the tent up before the rain came in again.

Batteries are low tonight so I’m hoping I get some clear skies tomorrow to boost them back up.

Friday 6th 245km

To Caiguna

Woke at 3am and had to don some clothes to warm up inside my sleeping bag. Jolly chilly first couple of hours on the road with a stiff Southerly that turned to a very pleasant Westerly for the rest of the day. Made it most of the way along the 146km straight that is the longest straight section of road in Australia apparently.

Cracked my previous best distance thanks to the tailwind and even have more juice in the batteries than I started the day with 🙃

Sometimes it’s just nice to know that you’re not the only fruit loop. This Japanese chap aspires to be a superman and has walked with his wheel barrow from Kununurra (~400km west of Katherine) and is heading for Sydney.

Here is a typical day. The twin sustainable goals are: ride at a pace that doesn’t deplete and go to bed with enough charge in the batteries to give assistance in the morning until usable current starts flowing in from the panels.

Wake at 5am pack up and eat soaked muesli to be on the road by 6am. Sip on the batteries – 50w until 7ish when I start to get juice from the panels then 100w until between 8 and 9. Stop for a couple of wraps and orientate the panels for best harvesting and soak up 300w+ for 30minutes or so. Bump up the energy consumption to whatever the day is offering to keep the batteries at this level – between 150 and 300 until ~2pm when I have to decrease consumption. Stop for the day between 4 and 5 to allow an hour or two to get the batteries up as much as possible. Set up tent and cook dinner. Dine as it gets dark – 6ish. Write a bit, read a bit, sudoku a bit. Drop off between 7 and 8.

Saturday 7th 200km

To Moodini bluff

A blue sky and light wind day. Must be time to find a shower as I got attacked by horse flies this avo.

Dropped into Australian Central Western time today – jumped forward 3/4hr. All going well I’ll be in Central Australian time tomorrow and jump forward another 3/4hr. Slowly catching up to NZ.

Sunday 8th 195km

To Eucla

Another blue day that drew in a sea breeze so crosswind from midday.

Skinny shoulder on west side of the border but no shoulder at all on SA side. I took a dive when washed onto the loose gravel by a truck which loosened the connection between battery and controller. Took me what seemed like an age to find where the failure was. Firmed it all up and all was well again.

Stopped early, partly because the off rattled me and partly because the time zone change had me wondering if I’d make the next campsite with enough daylight to get a decent charge back in the batteries.

It is great to be beside the ocean again.

Monday 9th 175km

To Nullabor

Chilly fog to start that burnt off by 8am but the sea breeze started at 10am giving me another crosswind blue sky day. Still no shoulder at all, the traffic has carved a channel by the seal for me to bounce over if I have to get off the road – not ideal!

Made the decision to spend a couple of nights before Ceduna as it’s over 250km away. Looking forward to a lazy day or two when I get there.

I’m camped under the eaves of a building tonight so I have a dry tent in the morning. The only gotcha is a snake living in the brickwork close to me. One of the other people camped here say it’s poisonous but at the lower end. He had something in his belly earlier so hopefully that will keep him happy until I leave.

My recollection – riding up the Stuart was more barren and challenging than the Nullabor has been. Perhaps I caught her in a good mood.

Tuesday 10th 165km

To Coorabie rest area

I’m feeling tired tonight. Only ~100km tomorrow to finish this section and earn myself a day or two off.

Found a good shoulder at last which started 30 odd km or so back. NE breeze then the sea breeze again. Mostly overcast day with wave bands around so not sure what the weather has in store for me tomorrow.

Wednesday 11th 115km

To Ceduna

Celebration time as I pass through the quarantine station just outside Ceduna and leave the Nullabor behind.

The day started windy and got windier 🙁 quartering headwind from SE. Just started to get some solar in at Penong when the sky turned black with complete cloud cover. I was down to 36V and feeling pretty despondent with ~60km to go and faced with a headwind and no solar assistance. Fortunately soon after this the sky broke up and I had good sun all the way to Ceduna.

Two days rest, clothes wash, reading and general lazy days – yay!